DePaul University, the nation’s largest Catholic university, has dramatically expanded its physical presence on State Street in Chicago’s booming South Loop through its just-completed acquisition of the historic 14 E. Jackson Blvd. building.

The 18-story, 384,000-square-foot structure becomes the fifth historic building that DePaul owns along East Jackson Boulevard, helping DePaul lead the way in making Chicago’s South Loop the largest “college town” in Illinois and surrounding states. The facility expands DePaul’s real estate footprint in the South Loop by roughly 25 percent and makes DePaul the largest educational institution in the area.

Since the mid-1990s, DePaul’s student enrollment at its downtown campus has grown approximately 35 percent, and in the fall of 2007, 12,688 students registered for classes there, making it the busiest of DePaul’s six Chicago-area campuses and making DePaul the school serving the largest number of students in the greater Loop area. The Loop Campus is home to the College of Commerce and Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, College of Computing and Digital Media, College of Law and School for New Learning (SNL), an innovative program for adult learners, as well as DePaul’s main administrative offices.

“Over the past decade, DePaul has launched more than 200 graduate and undergraduate programs, minors and concentrations, including groundbreaking programs in e-commerce, real estate and information security,” said the Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., DePaul’s president. “This landmark expansion of our Loop Campus will allow us to continue to build on that record.”

DePaul will begin work immediately retrofitting several floors of the building to house graduate programs offered by the university’s recently established College of Communication. SNL is expected to relocate there as well. The facility brings DePaul’s South Loop holdings to approximately 1.7 million square feet. DePaul’s other properties along Jackson are the DePaul Center, 1 E. Jackson; O’Malley Place and Lewis Center, 23 and 25 E. Jackson, respectively; and the College of Computing and Digital Media Center, at the northeast corner of Jackson and Wabash Avenue. DePaul also owns the Merle Reskin Theatre, 60 E. Balbo Drive, and houses students at the multi-school University Center of Chicago residence hall at 525 S. State St.

Joining Holtschneider for the June 9 dedication were Mary Dempsey, recently elected chair of DePaul’s Board of Trustees; Ty Tabing, executive director of the Chicago Loop Alliance; Robert Kozoman, executive vice president; Jacqueline Taylor, dean of Communication; Marisa Alicea, dean of SNL; and Glen Weissenberger, dean of the College of Law.

“DePaul has long had a commitment to the city of Chicago,” Dempsey said. “Dating back to the 1950s when many institutions and residents were leaving the city, DePaul firmly planted roots in both Lincoln Park and the South Loop. DePaul has been a leader in revitalizing areas in which many others did not see value.”

“When DePaul opened the DePaul Center, it was truly a pioneer in revitalizing what had long been a forlorn stretch of State Street,” said Tabing. “This latest acquisition by DePaul further strengthens the South Loop’s identity as a major hub of higher education.”

Taylor said the proximity of the 14 E. Jackson building to DePaul’s other facilities will help the college build on synergies that already exist and become a valuable asset for professionals seeking to upgrade their new media skills. “This new space is a tremendous boon to our new college and will benefit our students greatly,” Taylor said. “The facility’s proximity to the hundreds of employers who provide internship opportunities to our students also is a definite plus.”

Alicea said that SNL’s future move to the building will enable further expansion of its respected and oft-imitated programs tailored to adult learners. “SNL’s faculty and staff welcome the opportunity to design a state-of-the-art learning environment for our diverse population of adult undergraduate and graduate students,” Alicea said.

Meanwhile, SNL’s move from the Lewis Center will create space for a long-sought physical expansion of DePaul’s College of Law, which has been rapidly moving up the U.S.News & World Report rankings.

The 14 E. Jackson building is located directly north across the street from the DePaul Center, dedicated in 1993 as the university’s flagship Loop facility and home to its highly ranked part-time MBA program. Currently serving more than 50,000 students, Chicago’s Loop is the largest hub of higher education in Illinois and its surrounding states.

The 14 E. Jackson building was completed in 1913 and designed by the prominent Chicago architecture firm of Marshall and Fox (the firm’s other work includes The Drake Hotel in Chicago) as the flagship of the former Lytton’s clothing store chain. Established in 1887, Lytton’s was once one of the premier retailers on State Street and billed itself as “the world’s greatest clothing store.” After many years of ownership changes and declining sales, the store closed for good in the mid-1980s.

The building underwent extensive renovation in recent years, retrofitted to serve modern office and technology needs. DePaul will invest roughly $7 million to enhance the exterior of the ornate terra cotta building and upgrade interior spaces. Approximately one-third of the 14 E. Jackson building’s space is unoccupied, and DePaul will begin to renovate that space for academic programs aimed at adult students immediately. The building currently houses a number of tenants, including numerous retailers along State Street and Jackson Boulevard.

DePaul’s presence in the South Loop dates back to 1957 when it acquired and renovated the Lewis Center. Combating decades of decline in the South Loop, DePaul spearheaded revitalization in the area in the early 1990s when it acquired and undertook a $70 million renovation of the long-vacant former Goldblatt’s department store, and converted it into the DePaul Center, a vibrant mix of classroom, office and retail space.

“A key aspect of DePaul’s identity and mission is its commitment to Chicago’s urban core,” Holtschneider said. “Perhaps nothing more dramatically signifies this commitment than investing in real estate.”

A 2005 study, which DePaul helped research, estimated that 52,000 college students study at education institutions in the Loop, making it the largest "college town" in Illinois.

Note to editors: Fact sheets about the College of Communication and School for New Learning and additional historic and current photos of the 14 E. Jackson building are available upon request by contacting the Office of Media Relations at (312) 362-8591.